Starlit Sky 6: The Search for Nightwind
by warriorfreak
Summary: Sequal to Burning Moon Shadowflight gets a strange dream about Nightwind and ignores it. Then she meets Demon, a strange porcupine who likes only her. But why is Ashfur acting so suspicious? Sequal: Demon's Jealousy C 2008 warriorfreak
1. Chapter 1: The Unseen

_**Chapter 1, The Unseen**_

**ThunderClan**

**Leader**- _Ravenstar_- dark tabby she-cat with amber eyes

**Deputy**- _Ashfur_- dark grey tom with blue eyes

**Medicine cat**- _Darkflame_- dark brown tom with blue eyes

**Warriors**- _Shadowflight_- shiny pitch black she-cat with dark green eyes

_Thornclaw_- dark ginger tom with yellow eyes

_Rockpool_- dark stripy grey tom with dark blue eyes

_Shrewtail_- light brown tom with yellow eyes, apprentice, Hunterpaw

_Birchoak_- grey and brown tabby tom with yellow eyes, apprentice, Yarrowpaw

_Whiteflower_- creamy white she-cat with blue eyes, apprentice, Seapaw

_Squirreltalon_- dark ginger she-cat with light green eyes, apprentice Shalepaw

_Hollysky_- dark tortoiseshell she-cat with amber eyes, apprentice, Flamepaw

_Dustpelt_- big dusty brown tom

_Sorreltail_- tortoiseshell and white she-cat with yellow eyes

_Ferncloud_- light grey she-cat with amber eyes

_Leafcloud_- ginger and white she-cat with amber eyes

**Apprentices**- _Hunterpaw_- light tan tom with blue eyes

_Yarrowpaw_- light tortoiseshell she-cat with yellow eyes

_Seapaw_- Silver-blue she-cat with dark blue eyes

_Shalepaw_- ugly grey she-cat with amber eyes

_Flamepaw_- flame colored she-cat with amber eyes

**Queens**- _Skyfeather_- long haired white she-cat with odd violet eyes

_Snowfeather_- white she-cat with silver flecks and ice-blue eyes

**Kits**- _Stalkkit_- dark grey tabby tom with yellow eyes (Snowfeather's)

_Silverkit_- light silver tabby she-cat with blue eyes (Snowfeather's)

_Arrowkit_- dark red tabby tom with odd violet eyes (Skyfeather's)

_Stonekit_- grey tabby tom with ice-blue eyes (Skyfeather's)

_Whitekit_- white she-cat with ice-blue eyes (Skyfeather's)

_--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

_A dark shape raised his_ head, sniffing the air. He slipped out of the moonstruck clearing completely unseen. He prowled carefully through the underbrush, and stumbled into a clearing.

He leaped through a hole in a fallen tree, and was on the other side of the clearing, where the bodies of cats that weren't decaying lay. He snatched up some metal and wires.

Low on his belly, he slipped out of the clearing. He turned to the uplands and raced over to the mountains.

"Let's see…" he muttered. He looked into a cave. "This is the place…"

He entered the cave and looked around. It sloped steeply upward, but that wouldn't do. Raising his claws to his left leg, he slashed himself and smeared the blood along the stone walls, all the way up to the top of the mountain.

He looked at the top of the mountain, it was large and flat, but with little snow. He dropped the metal and wires onto the ground. Seeing a loose boulder in the side of the mountain he seized it and rolled it into the center of the flat land. He chipped at it with a piece of metal in his mouth until it was flat on one side.

And then he slashed himself hard, and blood poured onto the pile of metal and wires, and he carefully made a shape from it.

Then he turned and walked away. His plans terrified him, but nobody would die unless they were careless.

**Sorry this wasn't earlier…I am sick and I had to go into town…well, sucks for me…**

**Review for Flamepaw's and Shalepaw's warrior names!!**


	2. Chapter 2: Aspenleaf

_**Chapter 2, Aspenleaf**_

_A white and grey she-cat_ slipped out of the warriors den. She glanced back at the large bush, her eyes wide and her ears perked. She felt terrible and guilty.

Her name was Leafcloud. She had deep amber eyes.

She leaped on top of the nursery and slipped through the thorn barrier.

She set her nose to the ground and set off on a run. She looked back occasionally, making sure that no one was following. What she was doing went against the warrior code horribly. She was seeing a tom from another Clan. They didn't love each other, they just liked each other.

But Leafcloud still had the same increasing suspicion. The cat she liked, Brownpaw, was very interested in her. Leafcloud barely liked him at all. She just went to see him because…well…

She approached the WindClan border, and paused, sniffing the air. She saw him emerge from the grass.

"Brownpaw!" she whispered. He looked up, and the moon caught his dark brown fur, and he looked ignited. Something stirred deep in Leafcloud's chest, then started hammering on her head. She shook her head, then walked over to him.

He was sitting on a large flat boulder, the place where they always met. Leafcloud leaped up beside him.

"Hello, Leafcloud," he mewed. This wasn't his normal greeting. Usually he touched his nose to hers, or purred forever.

"What's wrong?" Leafcloud whispered.

"Nothing," Brownpaw turned his head away stiffly. "I…well, Barkface is…dying."

Leafcloud stiffened. "I'm sorry. How far along are you in your apprenticeship?"

"I'll be a full medicine cat soon," he murmured. "But I can't just let him die. He has a sickness. But he can't move. So he can't tell me which herb to use."

"I see," Leafcloud meowed. "Is there anything I can do?" she asked.

"No," he mumbled. "There isn't." very abruptly he jumped off the rock and turned for his camp, the wind buffeting his fur.

Leafcloud opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything he disappeared over a rise. Leafcloud watched unhappily, then turned and bounded back to ThunderClan territory. She dashed into the camp and leaped into her bedding.

XXX

Shadowflight stepped out of the warriors den. She sat down by the fresh-kill pile, but didn't take anything.

"Aren't you hungry?" her friend, Skyfeather asked, padding over to her. "You haven't eaten for the past five days."

Shadowflight turned her head away. Skyfeather shrugged and padded over to Leafcloud.

Shadowflight was full aware that she couldn't eat. It was because she couldn't stop thinking about her friend, Nightwind.

She was dead. It was hard for her to accept. It just was hard.

XXX

Rockpool patrolled the ShadowClan border alone. He was bored. Ever since he had become a warrior, there had been nothing to do.

But there was something to do. He could confess his feelings to Shadowflight. But that was basically impossible. He always got embarrassed.

The sturdy legged tom leaped onto a tiny rock and lay on his side, licking his flank.

"Hey you!" someone shouted. Rockpool sprang to his feet.

"Show yourself!" he snarled. A calico she-cat slid out of the bracken on the ShadowClan side of the border.

She had wonderful sparkling amber eyes. Rockpool had to admit, she was incredibly beautiful. Swirls of color made spirals on her flanks, and she had a very clean white chest and paws. That was the only part that was white.

"My name is Aspenleaf. I am a ShadowClan warrior."

Her voice sounded like music.

Rockpool couldn't believe that a cat could be so pretty.

"Your very pretty," he mewed. Where were his words coming from?

"I know. That's what…" Aspenleaf trailed away.

"What?" Rockpool prompted.

"C-Cederstar assigned me a tom!" she cried, "As a mate! That's what she has been doing…I-I hate it. My sister Frostwind got this dope named Treepelt, and he's a total idiot! My tom is named Owlclaw and he's worse then Treepelt. He's a little bit bigger then you. All he does is flatter me all day, and follow me around. I just can't love him. Then we have to have kits. He's plenty nice, but I don't want him as a mate!"

Rockpool stopped. Here was this she-cat, who didn't even know his name, that was pouring out her unhappiness.

"Well," she said, sniffling, "actually I just came by because I needed to tell someone that I am so frustrated. Frostwind actually really loved Treepelt. You ought to see them! And the rest of the Clan got assigned their mates, and they like it fine. It's only me! I just _hate_ having to go around with a tom I don't even want!"

Rockpool felt an odd stab of anger at Owlclaw. Why?

Suddenly he heard a voice from the pines on Aspenleaf's side of the border. A brown tom with pale yellow eyes and massive shoulders stepped into view. He saw Aspenleaf and ran to her side, twining his tail with hers.

So that was Owlclaw. Aspenleaf looked dejected.

Suddenly Owlclaw caught sight of Rockpool.

"Aspenleaf, back away slowly," he mewed in a gruff voice. "I'll protect you."

"I don't need-," Aspenleaf began, but broke off, hanging her head.

"Your not thinking you get this she-cat are you?" Owlclaw snarled at Rockpool.

Rockpool flicked his tail, still on his side of the border.

Owlclaw stalked up until he sat down right in front of Rockpool.

Suddenly Owlclaw crouched down and sailed foreword, Rockpool backed up, but he could already tell he was going to be crushed.

Suddenly someone thin and black sailed through the air, smacking Owlclaw to the ground.

Rockpool scrambled to his feet. Shadowflight had Owlclaw pinned on his side.

Rockpool trotted over to Shadowflight and gave her ear a lick. "Thanks," he muttered.

Then he saw Aspenleaf. Her eyes were misting, and she was staring at him in a disappointed way. As she turned around, head and tail drooping, Rockpool heard her mutter, "I guess he already has a she-cat."

Shadowflight backed away from Owlclaw, and sprinted into the trees on the ThunderClan side. Rockpool followed her.

Rockpool felt his fur tingle when her pelt brushed his, so he looked away and meowed, "That Owlclaw was an ugly lump."

Shadowflight looked away, quickening her pace. Rockpool wondered what was wrong.

"Well," she said in an angry voice, "Sometimes there are she-cats who think beyond your brain!" she gave him a look hot with fury and raced foreword.

"What did I say?" Rockpool asked himself, his mouth slightly open.

**Uh-oh! More forbidden love! I love having Shadowflight and Rockpool fight. So, review. Well why not??**


	3. Chapter 3: The Other Creature

_**Chapter 3, the other creature**_

_Shadowflight raced back through the_ forest, angry at Rockpool. She was just mad at him. So fascinated in that stupid she-cat, Aspenleaf! No doubt he liked her!

Seething with anger, the black she-cat raced around a tree, and slammed on her brakes, spraying dirt into the air.

Something had been moving. Shadowflight flattened herself onto her belly and inched foreword. She saw to yellow eyes glinting in the dark.

Suddenly the moon came out and fell onto the creature. It was a cat! No, it was a…porcupine!

Shadowflight heaved herself away, but the porcupine had already seen her.

"Hey!" it shouted. Shadowflight turned around, preparing to be bashed to bits with the porcupine's quills.

But she hissed and bared her teeth.

"Demon," the porcupine grunted, "my, er, name, I know it's highly embarrassing. Don't hit me cat, please. I'm young."

Shadowflight stopped, a paw raised.

"My name's Shadowflight," she rasped.

"You're not dangerous!" the porcupine, or Demon, cried out, grinning, "You're blind!"

"Only in one eye," Shadowflight objected.

"Watch it, I can swat my tail, you know."

"Yeah I know," Shadowflight mewed dryly, already warming to the porcupine.

"Have you heard of the Clans?" she asked.

"Yeah sure, I just got kicked out of RiverClan."

"Can I come with you, I mean, to the camp?" he asked.

"Well yeah, as long as you don't swat."

"I won't," he grunted, and lumbered after her.

XXX

Shadowflight lay down in the warriors den. Demon had been accepted to stay in the Clan for a little while. He was sleeping out in the entrance of camp.

Suddenly Shadowflight looked around. She wasn't in the warriors den. She was sleeping!

Suddenly a cat came bounding up to her. He was fiery red.

"My name is Firestar," he said. "I am going to give you a well, an, er, something from StarClan."

"I'm waiting," Shadowflight said quietly.

Firestar stepped aside, and two cats appeared in the gloom. One was black, with a stream of blood running down it's side. The other was silver grey. They were both lying down on their sides.

"Nightwind and Seapaw!" Shadowflight cried out. Suddenly, Nightwind raised a paw and pressed it to Seapaw's face. "I'm sorry, I will explain later," the black she-cat mewed. After a moment she took her paw off.

Firestar stepped into view, and the two cats faded.

"You must do something," he mewed, "You must go to Nightwind's grave, and take what you find there to the safety of the Clan. Dig up Nightwind's grave. Keep what you find on her grave in the safety of the Clan until it dies. Then take it and Seapaw to the gorge, and press your paw to Seapaw's face and to Nightwind's at the same time. Watch what happens."

Firestar looked straight at her. "Take heed of Demon," he mewed, then, as he was walking away, he turned back and said, "The Search for Nightwind has begun."

XXX

Shadowflight crunched into a mouse. She looked up as someone padded over to her.

"Hi, Demon," she mewed. The porcupine had been let into the Clan a day ago.

"What do you do all day?" The porcupine asked, smiling at her.

"Oh, hunt and stuff."

"Want to hunt, then?" he asked. "I don't eat meat; I eat bark, but still…"

"Sure," Shadowflight stood up and Demon followed her out of camp. He was the same size as her, with black quills that had a faint white tip on the end. He had a long tail, that was covered in quills larger, longer and sharper them the rest of his body. His underbelly had small, prickly ones.

Shadowflight crouched down and scented the air.

"I smell mouse," she muttered. She dropped onto her paws. She leaped into the air and was met with a thousand pains.

She screamed and jumped back, her eyes blinded in pain. She cried and yelped. She could barely feel her body.

Then she opened her eyes. She saw Demon crouched right where she was going to jump. She had landed on _him. _

"What happened?" she asked. She saw four quills in her cheek. "Ow!" she cried angrily.

"Don't move!" Demon screamed, "Don't breath! Don't think!"

Shadowflight halted in her tracks. "What is it?"

Then she saw that the porcupine was crouched beside a large metal thing. It had large metal teeth.

"It's a trap," Demon said, "Twolegs put them out to trap animals. When you step on it, something makes the jaws spring shut on your leg. Then the Twolegs come and kill you."

Shadowflight shuddered. Her whole body was in pain. "Can you get these things out?" she asked.

"Not without sticking more inside you," he said, his eyes glittering.

Shadowflight walked foreword and sat beside him. "Er…thanks." She suddenly felt very self conscious, so she left.

XXX

Back in camp, Shadowflight started eating a mouse. Demon had walked in a few minutes ago. Ravenstar had pulled out her quills.

She saw two cats, Shalepaw and Flamepaw, walk by, giving her weird and disgusted looks. They vanished inside the apprentices den.

Then Shadowflight heard a conversation. It was Hollysky and Birchoak, talking with Sorreltail and Ashfur.

"I mean, I wouldn't believe it," Hollysky muttered, "It's really against the warrior code. Falling in love with a porcupine!"

"I don't think she knows it," Ashfur muttered.

"The other day they almost slept together!" Birchoak whispered excitedly. "I've been spreading the word. Shalepaw and Flamepaw are starting a black cats and porcupine hating club. I'm going to join!"

"So am I," Ashfur and Hollysky chorused.

"Flamepaw dropped me a hint that they are going to spy on the two of them," Hollysky whispered.

"It won't be long before she starts growing quills," Ashfur muttered, looking at his paws.

Shadowflight took a huge breath, basically bursting with anger. Who thought she loved Demon? Great StarClan, some cats had no sense! What was wrong with being friends?"

She clamped her jaw shut on a snarl of rage, and instead washed her whiskers. She was so mad. Who were these cats? One day hunting! In love?

_Anyway, _she thought, _didn't Ravenstar tell me that I should teach him how to hunt? _

She tried to dismiss it, but it was very hard. _I think it will be good when he leaves. And I'll help him along in the process._

XXX

Leafcloud rushed up to the boulder beside Fourtrees. It was the middle of the night. She didn't know if Brownpaw would be there. He was always off trying to help Barkface.

Suddenly a medium brown figure came dashing through the grass towards her.

"Brownpaw!" Leafcloud mewed happily.

"Barkface is about to die! There is only one way to save him. There is an herb in your territory with dark purple leaves. And you need to be the one to give it to him. He said that theirs is something about the larger paw…"

"Will you do it?" he whispered.

"Yes," Leafcloud muttered and the two locked gazes. Leafcloud then turned and scampered away. She looked all over. Where was it? Then she looked up. She saw purple fungi growing on the highest branches of a tree. She clawed her way up the trunk. She saw that the fungus had tiny purple leaves.

She tore it from the tree and dashed back down. The taste made her mouth and eyes water, it was so terrible.

She ran back to Brownpaw and dropped it at his paws.

"There you go," she said.

"You need to give it to him," Brownpaw said.

Leafcloud picked it back up and followed him through the grass and into the WindClan camp.

Leafcloud tried her best not to stare at the other cats. She slipped into a dark den.

"Barkface," Brownpaw whispered, "Leafcloud-a ThunderClan cat- has the herb."

"No," he rasped, barely lifting his head.

Leafcloud dropped the herb by his mouth and he sniffed it. Then he took a couple mouthfuls.

"He's going to live," Brownpaw whispered excitedly.

"No," Barkface rasped "I'm too weak. Farewell, Brown…claw.

Brownclaw. Take my place and be strong."

"My name is Brownclaw?" Brownpaw asked, his eyes teary.

"Yes."

Barkface said his last word. Then his muscles loosened.

"I…it was the right herb," Brownclaw rasped angrily, pummeling the moss with a paw. "It was!"

Leafcloud gave him a sad look then padded out.

She was just at the border when a voice called out: "What are you doing on WindClan territory?"

It was Ashfur.

**He he!! She's in trouble! Who liked Demon?? Next chapter tomorrow!!**


	4. Chapter 4: Consequences

_**Chapter 4, Consequences **_

_Skyfeather woke in the middle_ of the night. Where was Leafcloud? She had been right beside Skyfeather all night, but she knew she was gone.

She padded out, the moon catching her white fur and making her glow. Then she hit someone.

"Darkflame!" she gasped. Last time she had spoken to him he had told her he loved her. Then she never went near him again.

"I…" he managed, then his face went red with embarrassment.

"Did you mean it? When you told me…?"

Darkflame paused. "Yes," he whispered, "I did."

"I…" now Skyfeather was at a loss. "I…I…would say I did, but this is against the warrior code."

"I know." Darkflame rasped. "But it isn't fair! We have feelings too!"

He looked miserable, raking at the ground with his claws. "I love you, Skyfeather," he told her.

"I know," Skyfeather said, as fast as she could manage without sounding dumb, "I love you too," then she left.

XXX

Leafcloud stopped running as fast as she could. She was scared. She had been caught. Should she hide? Should she tell Ashfur what she was doing?

But she was already in plain view of the dark warrior. But what was he doing out, in the middle of the night? What was _she_ doing?

_This is crazy, _Leafcloud thought as she padded up to him. He wasn't deputy, they were both warriors, so he had no power over her…but he was older. His rank was higher. She tried not to growl.

"What are you doing over the border?" he snarled.

"I…I wanted some fresh air. The den is really stuffy. I noticed how low the fresh-kill pile was really low, so I decided to hunt a bit and saw this rabbit…I didn't see the border."

"Where is the rabbit? Where is prey?"

"All…buried around the territory."

"Right," he snarled, "Come with me. I woke up when I smelled a sent. I think it was Brightheart. There was badger. She's dead. The whole Clan should know by know. Then, the new deputy will be appointed, and I will move higher up in rank. Maybe even become the deputy. And then I will chase you out of the Clan for feeding me little lies."

Leafcloud listened in shock, worry, and fear. She let her head and tail drag.

When they walked into camp, everybody was awake. Ravenstar was pacing beside the dead body of Brightheart.

"There is badger on the loose somewhere," she said, "And it killed our deputy."

She leaped onto the Highrock. "I will appoint the new deputy," she yowled.

"Wait!" Ashfur snarled, grabbing Leafcloud and leaping onto the Highrock. "I found Leafcloud _in_ WindClan territory, and she lied to me. How do we know that she didn't kill Brightheart?"

The Clan began to yowl. Leafcloud looked down and saw Skyfeather. Her face wasn't worried for her friend, it was hard with anger.

Suddenly afraid of what was going to happen to her, Leafcloud bowed her head.

"Leafcloud?" Ravenstar's voice seemed to boom above her ears. "Is this true?"

_I need to talk to her alone,_ Leafcloud thought desperately.

"Leafcloud, tell the Clan your story."

"Well," Leafcloud muttered.

"Speak up!" someone shouted at her.

"I-I-t-there-I was at Fourtrees, I wanted to get some fresh air and saw how low the fresh-kill pile was, so I chased a rabbit up and over the border to WindClan. Then this tom, he was sort of brown. I think he was the medicine cat apprentice. Well anyway, he came up to me and said that Barkface was dying and that a ThunderClan cat had to find this purple fungus and give it to him. So I got it and gave it to him, but he was too weak and died."

"Leafcloud," Ravenstar's voice was rather hard. "You know that it is against the warrior code to try and help a cat from another Clan. Your intentions were good, but it is still against the warrior code."

Leafcloud, head still bowed, could not answer. Why had she done it? She knew it was against the warrior code, and she had never done anything against the warrior code before.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled. She didn't want to look up, to see all the shocked and disappointed eyes.

"Now I must appoint the new deputy," Ravenstar lifted her voice. "I do not believe Leafcloud killed Brightheart. So therefore…I say these words before the body of Brightheart so her spirit may look down and approve of my choice. There is one warrior in this Clan who is always alerting me of treachery. Ashfur will be the new deputy of ThunderClan."

Leafcloud felt her muscles twitch but she did not move.

"Ashfur!" The cats roared, basically overjoyed at having him be the new deputy. Leafcloud looked up and saw Ashfur as he walked over to the warriors den, a bunch of warriors speaking to him all at the sane time.

"Ravenstar?" Leafcloud asked quietly.

"You may go," Ravenstar's voice was distant, as if she didn't care. She looked to the sun, which was just barely over the horizon. She leaped off the rock and left camp.

Leafcloud also left the rock. She padded over to Skyfeather.

"Hi," she said, yawning, "been quite a night, hasn't it?"

Skyfeather gave her a furious look. "To you, maybe! Leafcloud, I thought that you of all cats would never do anything against the warrior code! What made you want to do something like that?"

She turned and whisked into the warriors den.

XXX

As Leafcloud lay in bed that night, it hit her why she had tried to save Barkface.


	5. Chapter 5: Barrier

_**Chapter 5, barrier**_

_Rockpool woke the next morning_ with nothing to do. He didn't want to go on some patrol, he wanted to lead one. A part of him yearned to be deputy. But he knew he was much too young. But he could tell that Ashfur would certainly enjoy sending him on patrol after patrol after patrol. So he just skipped out of camp. Hew would bring home a lot of prey at the end of the day.

He found his paws carrying him over to the ShadowClan border. He found himself gazing into the marsh and pines on the other side, and he wondered what he was looking for. He brushed against a large bush growing right at the border.

He marked his scent on the bush then leaped onto a large flat boulder that was on the border and lay, licking his paw.

Suddenly he heard the voices of a ThunderClan patrol coming along the border. He could here Ashfur with them. Scared of being caught wasting his time on a boulder, he leaped down and began to stock some nonexistent prey.

"Rockpool!"

Rockpool ignored Ashfur's call, because he had really seen a mouse. He leaped as the deputy called again, and the mouse disappeared.

"What are you doing?" Ashfur asked as Rockpool padded into view.

"Oh…I marked my scent. I was hunting. My mouse just got away."

Ashfur raised his eyebrows as it he didn't believe the young tom.

"Well, I was going to have you join this patrol. I would stay back and organize the rest. But you were gone."

He glared down at the sturdy-legged dark grey tom, his eyes angry.

Suddenly there came the sound of happy voices and Shadowflight dashed into view, with Demon beside her.

"Oh, hi," Shadowflight muttered.

Rockpool decided to clean his pelt. He had heard the gossip about the porcupine and Shadowflight liking each other. It was all rubbish of course; he didn't believe a word of it. But it still made him sort of angry when he saw them.

"Oh it's you," Ashfur said in a bored voice. "Come on, join our patrol. You too, Rockpool."

He sighed deeply as he padded over to stand beside Demon.

Ashfur veered away into the middle of the forest.

Demon was talking quietly to Shadowflight, and Rockpool pointedly angled his ears away. Then Shadowflight bounded ahead. Demon watched her for a while then leaped foreword suddenly, with incredible speed. Rockpool saw his tail go out, and Shadowflight slammed headlong into it.

Ashfur and Rockpool leaped foreword at the same time, while Demon screamed. Ashfur barreled into him, carefully placing a paw on his neck.

"WHAT?!" the deputy screamed, "Why did you hit her!? What are you doing?!"

"Get…" Demon rasped, "away from that tree." He turned his head and gazed at the whimpering Shadowflight.

Ashfur backed off him, and he walked over to Shadowflight, but Ashfur tripped him on his way, and put a paw carefully on his back.

"Did I hurt you?" Demon whispered to Shadowflight.

Her usual reply would be, "Can't you see you hurt me?" But instead it was just a whispered, "No."

Surprised, Rockpool found himself feeling like a barrier. His mind disappeared in thoughts.

It was clear that the two liked each other. More then just friends. He could tell they did. He didn't want to stand between them. There were plenty more she-cats in the Clan. He felt sick and dizzy, as if he was going to throw up. He understood now that he must never by with Shadowflight, that he must always stay away from her and Demon.

Not that Demon didn't like him. The porcupine didn't seem to see that Rockpool had large feelings for Shadowflight.

Maybe, he thought, I should just go up and confess my feelings, have her say that she liked someone else, then maybe…maybe…maybe go to ShadowClan. Go and be with Aspenleaf. Maybe even battle Owlclaw.

Suddenly he saw a picture of Aspenleaf strewn on the ground, a bunch of rouges above her, one pounding Owlclaw into the ground. Then he would be there, killing every rouge. He would grab her and take her to safety.

He felt stupid afterward, because it was so dumb and pointless. He decided he didn't want to be here anymore.

XXX

Shadowflight whimpered in pain, this was the second time Demon had hit her.

"Was there another trap?"

"Yes," Demon answered, "over by that tree. You were going to get caught in it."

Shadowflight felt her head spin with dizziness. She had to be more careful. Every time Demon saved her, he smashed more quills into her body.

She looked at the scars the other ones had left in her leg. This time one was pierced into her blind eye. She pulled out the one in her shoulder, then five in her haunch.

She felt someone pull the one in her eye out, and saw that it was Rockpool. She looked away; his eyes were wide with a thousand different thoughts.

Ashfur was still holding Demon down. Shadowflight saw that the porcupine was smashed in the dirt, his chin on the ground, his yellow eyes directed right at her.

"I'm…" Shadowflight rasped, "going back to camp." she turned around and began to limp away.

She entered the almost empty camp. Almost everyone was on a patrol or hunting. Hunterpaw, Flamepaw and Shalepaw remained outside.

Flamepaw and Shalepaw were muttering together. They saw Shadowflight, exchanged a glance, then sauntered over.

"Oh hi," Shalepaw drawled, smirking, "where's your mate?"

"My mate?" Shadowflight was confused.

"I mean the sharp guy."

"Demon? He's back in the forest."

Flamepaw giggled. "When are the kits going to be born?"

Shadowflight felt her blood boil. StarClan!

She heard the rattle of quills. _Stay away, Demon, _she thought desperately, _please stay away._

"So, when are they due?" Shalepaw prompted.

"_NEVER_!" Shadowflight roared, "_DO YOU_ _WANT TO KNOW HOW FLYINGPAW DIED? I KILLED HIM! I CAN DO THAT TO YOU TOO! SO IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP THIS INSTANT I WILL PERSONALLY MAKE SURE THAT YOUR LIFE IS NO LONGER CONTINUED_!"

The two apprentices stared at her with shocked, almost frightened looks in their eyes. Flamepaw raced away, but Shalepaw stood up, her face an inch from Shadowflight's.

"_WANT TO KNOW WHAT I THINK OF YOU? YOU'RE A CAT WHO IS SO CLOSED MINDED AND STUCK UP THAT YOU CANT TELL THAT YOU'RE REALLY HURTING SOME OTHER CAT'S FEELINGS! I DIDN'T REALLY LIKE THE WAY YOU TOOK OVER ROCKPOOL!"_

Shadowflight took a huge breath and shouted back, "_YOU KNOW WHAT I THIHK OF _YOU_? YOU'RE A BIG MOUTHED, DUMB HEADED IDIOT WHO THINKS SHE CAN GO AROUND NUDGING INTO OTHER CATS' BUSINESS! I SUGGEST YOU FIND A SOCIAL TOM WHO ACTUALLY LIKES YOU, AND TELLS YOU THAT SOME CATS HAVE MATTERS THAT __AREN'T FOR STUPID LITTLE APPRENTICES!"_

That shut Shalepaw up. She sat down, her face flushed and her eyes glimmering. Many cats had gathered around to watch the shouting contest.

Shadowflight's throat felt scorched. She sat down, feeling almost panicky; her lungs seemed to have frozen up. All the bullying Shalepaw had done to her…it made her so…furious.

"Interesting choice of words, girls," Ravenstar mewed, trotting over. "This is going to make you angry Shadowflight, but I've had this planned for a few days. I have a few warriors I want to make. And some apprentices."

She leaped atop the Highrock, calling the Clan around her.

"I would first like to congratulate Snowfeather on her first litter of kits. Thornclaw is the proud father. And I do believe they will be born quite soon."

She gave Snowfeather a smile. "Also, Ferncloud's kit and Hunterpaw's younger sister, Yarrowkit, is ready to become an apprentice."

A small dark brown and black kit with orange streaks leaped on top of the rock beside Ravenstar.

"Until this kit earns her warrior name, she will be called Yarrowpaw. Shrewtail will be her mentor."

"Thirdly," Ravenstar yowled, "I would like Flamepaw and Shalepaw to step up here."

Shadowflight clamped her jaw shut on a loud snarl as the two apprentices leaped up beside their leader.

"I, Ravenstar, leader of ThunderClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon these apprentices. They have trained hard to understand the way of your noble code and I commend them to you as warriors, in their turns."

Shalepaw looked down at Shadowflight and smirked.

"Shalepaw, Flamepaw, do you promise to protect and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your lives?"

"I do," Flamepaw said.

"Yes," Shalepaw said stupidly.

_Is she trying to make a scene or what? _Shadowflight thought angrily, unsheathing her claws.

"Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your warrior names. Shalepaw, from this moment on you will be known as Shalepelt. StarClan honors you. Flamepaw, from this moment you will be known as Flametail. StarClan honors you, too."

"Yeah!" Shalepelt screeched. Shadowflight tried hard not to throw up.

"We are warriors! We are warriors!" They screamed.

"_Shalepelt_! _Flametail_!" the Clan cheered with way to much enthusiasm for Shadowflight's liking.

"Shadowflight!" Shalepelt shouted, sauntering over.

"What is it?" she snarled.

"You didn't shout out my name." she strutted in front of the black warrior.

"Well, I'm waiting. Start praising me."

"Why should I praise _you_? I killed Flyingpaw. I could easily do the same on you."

"Ravenstar!" Shalepelt screeched suddenly, "Shadowflight killed-,"

Shadowflight lunged through the air and placed a paw on the stupid cat's mouth.

Ravenstar came over. "What were you going to tell me, Shalepelt?"

"S-Shadowflight killed Flyingpaw!"

"Is this true?" Ravenstar asked.

Shadowflight clamped her jaw shut.

"Shadowflight? Is this true?"

Shadowflight still didn't answer.

"Answer me!"

Shadowflight didn't breath.

"ANSWER ME NOW!"

Shadowflight glared into the deep amber eyes that glowed in the evening light. Shalepelt was stunned. Both cat's eyes were glowing, drilling into each other.

Shadowflight didn't breath. Neither did Ravenstar. Any cat watching would notice how similar they looked, same height, same eye shape, both had dark pelts.

The moment of stillness between the two of them seemed to last forever. Then, without any warning, both cats leaped at each other in one silent, swift motion.

Shadowflight slammed her paws into Ravenstar's chest, and promptly felt teeth in her ear. She pulled back ward, throwing the leader to the ground, and using her claws to tear out hunks of dark tabby fur. She felt teeth tear into her forepaw, and she leaped backward. Ravenstar leaped at her and they were wrestling madly.

All the cats had gathered around to watch. They couldn't tell who was who, it was to dark, but they could see the occasional flash of green or orange light, and the glimpse of a shiny white fang.

Shadowflight leapt foreword, wrapping her strong forelegs around Ravenstar shoulders, but the leader threw her to the ground, pounding her claws into Shadowflight's shoulders. They were locked together, snarling and yowling with rage. Shadowflight was on her belly. So was Ravenstar. She could feel the teeth clamping down on her shoulder, right beside her neck, and Shadowflight slammed her paw into Ravenstar throat.

The teeth beside her neck bit harder, and Shadowflight tried to pull back, but Ravenstar had her locked in.

Then the teeth were gone. Someone screamed really hard. Shadowflight leaped away.

"YOU TRIED TO HURT HER!"

Shadowflight heard the voice, but couldn't see anything, so she prepared to battle off who ever had shouted at her. But no one came. Quickly her eyes adjusted, and she saw Demon standing over the whimpering form of Ravenstar.

"Oh Demon," Shadowflight rasped, "No."

Then Ashfur came charging at him, with Shalepelt, Flametail, Birchoak, and Hollysky behind him.

"RUN!" Shadowflight screamed. The porcupine leaped away from Ravenstar and bolted into the forest.

"After him!" Ashfur shouted, leaping foreword.

Shadowflight felt her heart start screaming. She leaped at the small party of cats, without even really meaning to. Something was driving her to do this.

She clawed and bit so hard that she couldn't believe what she was doing.

Shalepelt threw herself foreword, and Shadowflight swung a paw around, and it exploded into Shalepelt's side. The she-cat was thrown far away, and she banged hard into a tree.

Shadowflight wondered where she had gotten this strength. She was acting like Mudpaw, the robot she had fought four moons ago.

Ashfur bounded foreword, and Shadowflight could see he was quivering with strength and rage. She curved both her paws through the air, and they hit his back. He let out a scream, and pulled back, then leaped foreword.

Ashfur smashed into his side, and he fell onto the ground and didn't stand up.

The rest of the cats sprung backward, and Shadowflight whirled around and tore after Demon. Her heart was beating a thousand times a second, and her breath was shaking her whole body. She didn't even know if she would find the porcupine, she just had to run.

Then she saw him.

Demon was sitting behind a tree. His tail was lashing behind him, making quills fall to the ground.

"Demon," Shadowflight rasped.

He looked at her, his eyes wide, yet calm. "Shadowflight," he rasped, "I try to save you. But I hurt everyone every time I try. I am only an extra in the Clan. The Clan doesn't need me. I'm going to leave. Nobody will care."

"_I_ will care," Shadowflight whispered. And she didn't surprise herself by saying it. She had meant to say it. "Demon…" she didn't know what to say. She had a terrible headache.

"Then I'll stay," he meowed. "Go back in the morning, Shadowflight, and explain to Ravenstar that you were in a bad mood or something. You'll be fine."

She lay down, resting her head on her paws.

Then she felt spiky fur against hers.


	6. Chapter 6: Shocking Secrets

_**Chapter 6, Shocking Secrets**_

_Skyfeather laughed as she raced_ foreword, around the grey bulk that was Sunningrocks. Darkflame raced behind her. They would take time off every other day to be with each other at Sunningrocks. This was the tenth time Skyfeather had been with him.

She turned around and Darkflame smashed into her. She fell onto the ground, her belly in the air, and he landed on her and they both laughed.

She scrambled up the boulders. Darkflame was right beside her.

She lay down and watched the sun. It was in the middle of the sky (AN: this is happening when Rockpool was lying on the boulder, and he went on patrol with Shadowflight and Demon.)

Darkflame plunked down beside her, giving her face a good licking.

They both purred a little. Skyfeather found herself feeling drowsy. She shook her head lightly and stood up. She walked down the rock with Darkflame right behind her.

"We better go into camp one at a time so nobody gets suspicious."

"Yeah," he said. He bounded ahead.

Skyfeather watched him go, then felt a tear drop onto her paw. It was so stupid that they couldn't even be in camp together!

She sighed and stood up, then walked slowly back to camp.

XXX

The next day they went out again. They ran around Sunningrocks, then stopped to rest. Skyfeather was on the rock, he was on the ground.

She wished she could have kits with him, and they could raise some offspring. But that would be so risky.

She sighed, placing her head on her paws.

"Skyfeather!" Darkflame barked up suddenly at her. He scrambled up and stood beside her.

"I want to see something about you…"

She looked up. "What is it?"

He pressed a paw to her belly. Then he grinned. "I thought so," he muttered, "I'm pretty sure you're going to have kits."

XXX

Shadowflight woke in the morning. She heard a snapping noise and saw Demon up in a tree, chewing on bark.

"Hey Demon!" she called up, "Should I go to the camp and explain?"

"Reah!" he called with his mouth full. Shadowflight laughed. It was so hard to hear him.

"Can eh crom wish you?" he asked.

"No, I think it would be better if you stayed."

He nodded, then went on chewing.

Shadowflight stretched every part of her body. She walked only a few fox lengths when a patrol of warriors came into view.

Ravenstar was in the lead, with Snowfeather behind her. The queen's belly was _huge._

It was to late to hide. Shadowflight froze.

"Shadowflight…" Ravenstar murmured quietly. She turned her head, and Shadowflight saw eighteen quills sticking out of her face and neck. Three more were in her shoulder, and there were five in her flank. Six of them were sunk deep into her haunch.

"Oh…" she breathed. Why hadn't someone tried to pull out her quills?

"Shadowflight," Ravenstar started again. "I would like you back at camp. I am sorry I attacked you last night. That was a mistake on my part."

"What about…?" Shadowflight couldn't say the porcupine's name.

"He will be able to come back too, but guards will be posted at his side day and night.

"He's trying to save…"

Once again she couldn't go on.

"Who is he trying to save?" Ravenstar prompted.

"…me…" the word felt like sharp shards of ice on her tongue.

"Yes, you, and nobody else. That is not loyalty to all. That is loyalty to one."

"But he isn't part of the Clan," Shadowflight rasped. It was like the whole world was spinning away.

"I know that, Shadowflight," Ravenstar meowed. "And I don't think he ever will be. He is not a cat, he is a porcupine. Firestar would let any animal be part of the Clan. I will not do the same. Now get Demon and let's go."

Shadowflight stumbled backward. Demon was waiting for her. He had heard the whole thing.

Shadowflight followed after Ravenstar, her head low.

They padded down the ravine and into camp.

Shadowflight looked up at the tired faces of her Clanmates. Ashfur pulled himself out of a den, nodded to Birchoak and Hollysky, then walked away.

Birchoak and Hollysky walked foreword and put their forepaws to Demon's neck, making him fall face down into the dust. They carefully put their paws onto his back, trapping him on the ground. Then Shalepelt came up and pressed his tail to the ground.

Shadowflight padded into the warriors den, head down, staring at the ground.

Only when she had curled up did she realize that she was also being guarded. Flametail was sitting a few inches away.

XXX

"Skyfeather! You look so sick!"

It was the third day since Darkflame had told Skyfeather that she was pregnant. The young queen was padding into camp. It was raining hard, and she was flicking water off her ears.

"Hello, Leafcloud," She muttered, padding over to the edge of camp. She was feeling very sick, and her belly was churning madly.

Then she threw up.

She looked up after it was all done, feeling even worse then she had been earlier. Fuzzy headed, she padded swiftly over to Darkflame's den.

Nobody else was inside. She explained her condition to the medicine cat.

He smiled; he seemed eager to see what his kits would look like. Then he gave her some coltsfoot and poppy seeds, and told her just to sleep.

When she was padding out he suddenly called her back.

"Skyfeather!" he shouted.

"Yes?"

"You're going to have to move to the nursery. Who are you going to say is the kits father?"

"I'm going to go tell Birchoak that I'm about to have them born, and that he's the father." She called over her shoulder.

She found the tom quickly. He was standing beside Demon.

"Birchoak!" she rasped excitedly, "I'm about to bear your kits!"

"What?" he looked very confused.

"I'll be right back," she promised and dashed back to Darkflame.

"When are they due?" she asked.

"Oh…in a week or so."

Skyfeather raced back to Birchoak. "They'll be born in a week or so," she said.

"Well…okay…" he still looked unsure.

Skyfeather padded over to the nursery. Already the word had spread that she was going to have kits.

"Great!" Snowfeather mewed. Suddenly she took a deep breath and settled down.

Skyfeather found that there already was a fully lined nest waiting for her and she plunked down and fell asleep.

She woke up in the night and heard Snowfeather whimpering and crying out. She heard the voice of Thornclaw mutter something. Then she went back to sleep.

In the morning she saw Snowfeather sleeping, but there were two tiny kits suckling from her belly. One was grey, and the other, darker grey.

When Snowfeather woke up, she told Skyfeather the kit's names. "The light grey one is Stalkkit, he's a male, and the little dark grey one is Silverkit, and she's a female."

**Okay, I already have the kits basically planned out, but if you want to try to guess the names, please do. One of them is reddish…you can try and guess a name from that! And one is…grayish…try a name from that too. The last name is to obvious to even talk about. Also, how many kits do YOU think there will be??**

**Review!!**


	7. Chapter 7: The Search Begins

_**Chapter 7, The search begins**_

_Skyfeather's next week was boring._ It went by slowly, and she had nothing to do but lie around in the nursery and wait. What did happen was that Snowfeather's kits opened their eyes.

Stalkkit had yellow eyes, and Silverkit had ice-blue ones.

That evening Snowfeather left the den and came back later. All the kits were scampering around, yowling at their mother for food.Then two nights later Skyfeather's stomach started to throb.

Are they coming? She wondered. She was wide awake. Maybe Darkflame would come in. Maybe he wouldn't. Maybe she would die. Maybe she wouldn't. Maybe one of the cats would wake up and get him. Maybe they wouldn't.

She sat wondering for over to hours. Then Leafcloud stumbled into the nursery.

"Oh sorry," she mumbled, "I was half asleep."

"Don't go!" Skyfeather called at her friend. Leafcloud turned around. "What is it?"

"The kits might be coming. Get Darkflame and Shadowflight."

Leafcloud stumbled out of the den and returned within five minutes.

They all waited for another two hours. Leafcloud began to yawn and mutter about the way Ashfur would send them on patrols, and they wouldn't have enough sleep.

Skyfeather's belly had stopped throbbing long ago, but suddenly it seized up in pain.

She stifled a scream. Leafcloud stared down at her with huge amber eyes.

The pains started coming every minuet, and Skyfeather whimpered every time. Darkflame was carefully sorting the herbs he had brought.

Suddenly the pain became unbearable. Now they came every second. Skyfeather couldn't even move. Then she could.

She had her first kit.

Leafcloud thought it looked weird and was tired so she left, and Shadowflight followed.

"What should we name it?" Skyfeather asked her mate.

He looked down at it. "It's a male." He mewed, placing an herb in front of Skyfeather.

"You name it," Skyfeather ordered.

He paused. "Arrowkit," he said finally.

The kit was dark red.

The next kit Skyfeather had was a male. He was grey. "Stonekit," she decided.

The third was a white female. "Whitekit." She named it.

XXX

Leafcloud bunched her muscles and landed on the boulder on the inside of the border to WindClan. She let her eyes scan the fields. Then she looked back into ThunderClan territory. There was no Ashfur.

She saw Brownclaw come bounding foreword, and she say patiently on the rock. She knew what she was going to tell him. She also knew what he was going to ask.

"Oh, Leafcloud," he muttered, "I…I heard about how you got punished. Are you okay?"

"Yes," Leafcloud whispered.

"You must have felt terrible when they told you it was against the warrior code."

Leafcloud paused for a split second. "I already knew it was." She mewed in a small voice.

His eyes darted back and forth, before meeting the amber eyes that were trained on him. "Then why did you do it?"

"Because you asked me to." Leafcloud meowed quietly. And then Brownclaw's face seemed to grow, and his yellow eyes widened. His mouth shaped the word 'oh' but no sound came out.

"Do you…?" he asked, his voice just a rasp. The moon made his face glow. It was the middle of the night.

"Do you…love me?" he rasped.

Leafcloud could barely feel the ground beneath her paws. "Yes."

"I…love…you…too…"

Leafcloud swallowed hard, or tried to anyway. Her whole body was stuck.

"For how long?" he asked her.

"Since…since Mudpaw made a copy of you, and I found you lying on the moor. But I didn't know it. Not until you just asked me."

XXX

Shadowflight was thinking about her dream. The dream where Firestar had told her that there was something on Nightwind's grave.

She had nothing better to do then what he said.

She padded out of camp, then around to the back where there were many graves, some new and some old. She instantly saw the slightly fresh one that was Nightwind's.

And there was a tiny black kit on it.

The kit was tiny, probably a newborn. It was fuzzy black. Its tiny eyes were closed.

Was this what she was supposed to find there? She didn't know where the kit came from, or anything at all about it other then the fact that it was tiny and black.

"Hey!" she shouted, entering the camp, "I found this kit out in the forest."

Ravenstar instantly directed her to give it to Snowfeather.

Shadowflight bounded back to Nightwind's grave and began to dig. She dug for ages, and found not even a trace of hair.

She backed away. Nightwind was definitely not in the grave. She entered camp again, feeling worried.

XXX

Shadowflight padded into the nursery with Leafcloud two days later. She had told her friend all about the dream, and not having Nightwind in the grave.

Snowfeather was asleep. Her kits were asleep to, except the black one that had been found on the grave.

It was awake, and was much older looking. It looked about four moons old. Much too old for a kit who was a newborn to days ago.

And it had ice-blue eyes.

Suddenly Shadowflight remembered something, from long ago…

_Shadowkit watched as Sorreltail's two kits, Flamekit and Darkkit, leaped on top of each other. Her third kit, a small fuzzy black one with ice-blue eyes, watched patiently. Her siblings continued to tussle, but when she tried to join the game, they gave her sharp nips on the legs._

_Shadowkit looked up as Ravenflight entered the den suddenly, and looked down at her._

_ "Why are you so weird?" Ravenflight whispered, "Why don't you sleep on your back, or purr? Why don't you play?"_

_Shadowkit didn't answer, even though she could hear perfectly well. Ravenflight knew something that she didn't. _

Shadowflight looked down at the black kit again. It looked just like the one that had tried to play with Flamekit and Darkkit. This was Nightkit!

"I remember that Nightwind looked just like that when she was a kit. She…yes, this is her."

"It can't be her," Leafcloud said. She placed a paw on the kit's chest. "This kit is ice cold. I don't think that this cat is even alive. I think this is just a body."

"Firestar told me to wait until it died, so I am. But this kit is growing fast…"

She stopped. The mystery was too hard.

"Just wait," Leafcloud whispered as she padded away.

Shadowflight gave a frustrated look down at the kit and padded out.

**Hm…random chapter, I know. The next chapter contains more!**


	8. Chapter 8: Nightwind

_**Chapter 8, Nightwind**_

_Ashfur told Shadowflight, Leafcloud, and_ Seapaw to go on a hunting patrol that morning.

Shadowflight led the way, dragging her paws. Leafcloud followed, with Seapaw in the rear.

"She did die, right?" Seapaw asked, making Leafcloud and Shadowflight jump.

"Who are you talking about?" Shadowflight growled.

"Mudpaw. The battle when Brownpaw killed me."

"His name's Brown_claw _and he didn't kill you." Leafcloud grunted.

"No. He did. There was the pool of blood and Shadowpaw came and sat by me."

"WILL YOU SHUT UP?" Shadowflight snarled suddenly, whirling around and standing tall. Seapaw looked confused.

"Do you remember?" she shouted, "You were going to help Mudpaw but she slashed you and you were unconscious!"

Seapaw shook her head. "Yes, but now…they all gathered around my body and talked. So did you, Shadowflight."

"_SHUT UP_!" Shadowflight screamed. "You're just making me madder and madder! Can't you see that I'm upset about Nightwind? All this time I've been upset, and kept it to myself. Suddenly, you start trying to bring up unhappy memories! I don't need it!"

Leafcloud saw the black she-cat's eyes grow wide, then squint a little bit. She whirled around and stormed back to camp.

Shadowflight raced back into camp, where it was now afternoon, feeling mad. Suddenly she heard a scream come from the nursery and dashed over.

The black kit was inside, only it was no longer a kit. It looked more like a young apprentice, about Yarrowpaw's age. Snowfeather was screaming.

So the kit _was_ growing faster then normal. Much faster.

A bunch of warriors all grouped around the kit, but Shadowflight backed away slowly. She knew that whatever they did didn't mean anything. Something _very_ odd was happening.

XXX

Shadowflight woke very early in the morning. It was still dark, the sun would rise in a few hours, so she padded out.

And instantly saw the kit, or Nightwind, leaning against a tree. Or lying at the base of it.

She looked more like an older apprentice now. Shadowflight bounded over.

Nightwind was dead.

She was stiller then ever, and, Shadowflight realized, in the same position she had been when she leaned against a tree and died in the battle with Mudpaw.

Shadowflight didn't know what to do. Firestar had told her to take Nightwind, after she died, and Seapaw to the gorge, and press her paw to each of their faces.

She woke Leafcloud and explained what she was going to do.

"I'm with you," Leafcloud said instantly. "So I need to get Seapaw. She padded over, then into the apprentices den, and came out, holding a very limp body.

"She's…" Leafcloud looked frightened, "Very cold, and in apparently the same state she was in when Mudpaw put her in unconsciousness."

"I think that's okay," Shadowflight muttered. She grasped Nightwind, and for a second realized that she was holding her friends body.

The friend she thought she would never see again.

XXX

As Shadowflight and Leafcloud quickly padded over to the gorge, Leafcloud muttered, "Do you think this will bring Nightwind back to life?"

Shadowflight froze. She hadn't thought about that at all. She was just doing what Firestar said. She didn't even think about the reason.

"I don't know why he wants me to do this." Shadowflight growled. She snatched up Nightwind's body.

She looked down at the body she was holding, and saw the she-cat's ice-blue eyes were glazed with death.

_So she is dead, _Shadowflight thought. She shrugged, then walked on.

Then, slowly, she began to realize that Nightwind was dead. Dead, truly, really dead. She would never come back, despite what any supernatural StarClan cat did or said. She was _gone._

The true realization made Shadowflight's eyes teary, and made her sick to the stomach. Her throat was choked.

Trying not to sob, she walked on, holding the really dead cat in her jaws. She felt a tiny pain in her shoulder, where once one of Demon's quills had stabbed in.

Her thoughts wandered to Demon. He was being guarded every second. Most of the time he was pinned down by warriors, and brought one mouse a day to eat, when he wasn't even a meat-eater. They would let him into a circle of bushes that was closely guarded every five hours to make his dirt. Shadowflight's guard had disappeared, but she was_ never _allowed to get near the porcupine.

She sighed heavily and padded on. They were nearing the gorge. Shadowflight crouched on her belly and sidled foreword until she was right at the edge. She dropped Nightwind, and Leafcloud dropped Seapaw beside her.

"So…" Leafcloud's voice held a question.

"I press one paw to each of their faces," Shadowflight whispered. She walked foreword, aware of the mud around her.

"Shadowflight!" Leafcloud barked suddenly, "Get off that mound of earth! It's…"

Shadowflight scrambled to get off of an over hanging clod of dirt that was attached to the cliff wall. Her hind paw kicked out, sending the clod toppling.

Her hind paws were still on the clod, though, and her front were locked onto the main side. She yelped and barked with fear, trying to pull herself up. Leafcloud dashed over.

"Stop! There're more clods of dirt, and you'll get on one!" Shadowflight grunted, trying to heave herself to safety.

Leafcloud could only watch, her eyes damp, as Shadowflight scrambled to pull herself to safety.

Shadowflight's front paw slipped in the mud, and it fell. Her eyes made the whole clearing light up, as the moon made them glow. Then, with a last desperate shriek, her other paw slipped.

"Press your paw!" she shrieked up at Leafcloud as she hurtled to the water, "On their faces! And tell Demon…that…that…"

Leafcloud couldn't hear her.,She leaped to the edge. "WHAT?" she screeched down.

"…him!"

That was all she heard. Then it was just the steady roar of the water.

Tears flowing from her amber eyes, Leafcloud stumbled over to Seapaw and Nightwind, the spray of the river making both pelts, one black and the other silver-blue, damp.

She reached foreword, and pressed one shaking paw to Nightwind's face, and one to Seapaw's.

**Oh! What do you think is going to happen? Who do you think is going to die? What was Shadowflight going to say about Demon?**

**Please review!**


	9. Chapter 9: A Search

_**Chapter 9, A Search**_

_Shadowflight was slammed into the_ water. She tried to swim, but it was just too impossible. The water was everywhere, and she was thrown harshly against a rock.

She opened her eyes, and she couldn't even tell if she was underwater or above it. But she saw a black cat with a white underbelly. Stars trailed off his paws.

_Hello, _the cat said, and the words appeared in Shadowflight's head. _My name is Spiderpaw. Follow me, Shadowflight, daughter of a kittypet._

_A kittypet? _Shadowflight felt her whole body jerk in shock. Was there something odd about her past?

She was suddenly slammed headlong into something, and she thrashed her paws out, searching for Spiderpaw.

Then she took a breath, and the whole world exploded in color and sound.

XXX

Leafcloud was still shaking as both her paws were on the two cat's faces. Neither cat moved. Seapaw had unsteady, shallow breathing, and Nightwind was very, very still.

She waited for a long time, and still nothing happened.

After two more hours, she was ready to give up.

Suddenly there was an odd _crack! _And Firestar appeared before her.

"Leafcloud," he said, "I must fill you in on something. Nightwind has something called a Search. It is very, _very,_ rare. There are only two cats in the whole world wou have one. A Search is something that, when the cat with the Search dies, they have a special instinct that tells them to press their paw to any cat's face, alive or unconscious, but not dead. The cat that has the Search will transfer everything about it, its personality, every, tiny thing, to the cat that it presses its paw to.

"Then the cat that the one with the Search has transferred it's mind to, will hold all that cats knowledge, and basically go crazy, as its mind and the other cats mind work at the same time.

"Then a StarClan cat will come to an ordinary, living cat that knows the one with the Search, and give it instructions on what to do, like I did to Shadowflight. The kit that was found on Nightwind's grave is Nightwind's body, with a brain, but a brain that only tells it what to do, eat, sleep, drink…but has no personality, because Seapaw is holding her personality. And you can assume why Shadowflight didn't find Nightwind's body in her grave. Her body was the kit you found on top of it.

"The growth of the cat- in this case, Nightwind, will go with very odd and unusual speed, until the age in which it dies. Then the cat that has been told what to do will proceed by placing her paw on each of the cats faces, Nightwind's and Seapaw's.

"When the cat with the Search dies, later, after brought back to life, that is, and I mean really dies, it cannot press its paw to another cat's face, because a Search can only be used once. As soon as the cat with the Search really dies, a kit is born, somewhere in the world, with a Search, so that there are always two cats in the world that have Searches.

"Now, as you hold your paw to each of these cat's faces, you are quickly transferring all the knowledge and personality of Nightwind into her body. Soon she will wake up, and be alive, and Seapaw will be back to normal."

Leafcloud's head was thick and fuzzy with all she was hearing. This was so weird. So weird.

"When will Nightwind wake up?" Leafcloud asked.

"In a while." Firestar smiled lightly, "It surprises you, does it not, that a cat can know and have so much?"

Leafcloud nodded, her mouth open. Then she remembered.

"Did…did you help Shadowflight? She fell…does…does she have a…er…Search too?"

Firestar smiled. "I can never tell you." He walked off, then leaped into a star in the sky and disappeared.

Leafcloud kept her paw on Nightwind's and Seapaw's faces for another three hours.

Suddenly, she saw a very faint star in the sky fall through the air, and disappeared.

"W-where…am…I-I?"

Leafcloud felt a momentary burst of shock, then she looked down at the cats below her. Nightwind, _Nightwind, _had moved.

She raised her head jerkily, and moved it side to side with the same unsteady jerkiness.

"L…Leaf…Leaf…Leaf…Leaf…paw…Leafpaw…"

Leafcloud couldn't move. It was like Nightwind's brain was trying to organize itself.

"Surveillance…"

"Hit tree…"

"Silence…"

"She smiled…"

Nightwind said odd things, bits of memories, and other nonsense. She was quiet, observing everything.

"Nightpaw am I. Leafpaw, a friend mine of."

"I am Nightpaw. Leafpaw, a friend of mine."

It was like she had forgotten how to talk, then was quickly figuring it out as her brain organized itself. Leafcloud hoped this wouldn't take a while.

Nightwind stood up, then walked slowly around, as if learning how. After a long time she said another thing.

"Shadowpaw, Skypaw, Leafpaw and I. With…Rockpaw. Went to a clearing and there was Mudpaw. Brownpaw attacked and Shadowpaw said goodbye."

Nightwind looked down at one of her legs. She took out a paw and cut it, and watched the blood flow onto the grass. "I am alive."

"Yes," Leafcloud nodded. "That's right." She found herself grinning.

"Shadowpaw was here." Nightwind said.

"Yes. She fell into the water."

"Oh." Nightwind was still definitely not herself.

The black cat looked down at Seapaw. "She…"

Leafcloud grinned. "It's a very long story. I'll tell you a little now. My name's Leafcloud now. I became a warrior. And Shadowpaw is Shadowflight, and Skypaw is Skyfeather. And after you died we carried you back and Ravenstar named you Nightwind."

"So I'm a warrior. Did you kill Mudpaw?"

"Jeese, yes. She made a tree break the whole clearing in half, and Shadowflight was trapped on one side with Mudpaw alone, and they fought. Shadowflight pulled of her skin, then took off her head. But you have got to talk to her…"

She trailed away. _Would_ Nightwind ever get to talk to Shadowflight?

She looked to the horizon, where the sun had just appeared. Then she looked down at Seapaw. The silver-blue she-cat twitched, opened her eyes, and raised her head.

"Leafcloud? What happened…my…my…my brain…it feels…clearer."

She stood up and screamed.

"Leafcloud! A ghost…oh…my…!"

"She's alive. Put your paw onto her."

Seapaw gave her a terrified look, then slowly slashed a claw onto Nightwind's chest. Blood dripped onto the grass.

"How…?"

"It's a long story. Go on ahead."

Seapaw gave her an annoyed look, then padded in the direction of camp.

XXX

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

There was no blackness to see. She couldn't see. The pain was gone, but she couldn't feel…where…were…no…nothing…nothing…

She had no consciousness. Why…who was she? What was this? What?

The empty, nothingness….it didn't stop.

And then there was something…hard, no yummy underneath her. No, that was the wrong word. It was soft. Comfortable. She could hear a mouse singing. No. A bird singing. And a lake. No, a river. Yes. A river.

And then she tried to open her eyes by moving them down. That didn't work. She moved them up.

Before her stretched lots of little green blades. Grass! A…bug!

And then she was sitting up, muttering, "Where…am…I?"

And then she could think and feel and taste and smell. It was so amazing! And she could understand. She had a memory.

But there was one thing she couldn't remember. This was as far as she could…

(AN: this is a flashback)

_"You have always…" Nightpaw took a breath, "Been my friend." She stopped, and then took another breath. "And you always will be." She saw for a moment, Shadowpaw's face. "Live long…and in peace." She could see the whole world, and for an instant her whole body screamed in fear. What would happen? Oh StarClan…_

She wondered what had happened after that. Instead of asking Leafcloud, the cat in front of her, she puzzled over her own name. She remembered it being Nightpaw, but now it was Nightwind. Okay…

"What happened to me?" she asked, "I was hit by Brownpaw, then I was in pain…I talked to Shadowp-er-flight…then…I…

Leafcloud winced as if she had stepped on a thorn. "It's Brown_claw_," she whispered, then, raising her voice, she said, "You died. You came back to life."

Suddenly the grey and white she-cat's dam broke, and she explained in full detail the battle after Nightwind was dead, what had happened between the battle and now, and all that Firestar had said about Searches.

Then she padded away to camp, a little after Seapaw. Nightwind bounded after her.

The black she-cat caught up with her quickly. Leafcloud kept looking at her and chortling. "It's so weird…"

**That was probably a very boring chapter. I wish you guys could see the pictures I draw for my stories. I am a very good artist, getting the muzzles and hind legs right…but my cats are all a little to thin…whatever, sucks for me…REVIEW OR I WILL…you guessed it, delete the story. If I find er, Oceanwind and Steeltalon haven't reviewed I will…what? I am threatening thou holy readers?? Excuse me, even if Steeltalon and Oceanwind don't review I will not delete. Maybe curse, though…grr…**

**And the best reviewer of the story award goes to Aviation, for reviewing to every chapter with long, interesting reviews! A gold metal and a Shadowflight with Rockpool plushy for you!! (HOW DO YOU SPELL PLUSHY?)**

**In second place is Steeltalon, for being awesome and reviewing everything on all my other books!! Y R AWESOME!! A silver metal and a Skyfeather plushy for you!**

**In third place are Oceanwind and Darkstorm Mistystar's Legacy… Oceanwind has been great to all my other books, but she didn't review Burning Moon, so Darkstorm took her place there. So both of you guys get a Ravenstar plushy and a bronze metal… **

**THX for all who reviewed and welcome Firehawk101 and Rainfire! (Or are you the same person?? Whatever)**

**Why did I just type a long and pointless author's note? And why am I still typing??**

**REVIEW!!**


	10. Chapter 10: Hobo

_**Chapter 10, Hobo**_

_The sound of pounding, rushing_ water filled Shadowflight's ears. She looked up, her vision blurry. She saw grey, jagged stone walls all around her.

She stumbled to her feet. She was soaking wet, and she felt cold.

"Eh-he-he-he."

She leaped in surprise when she heard a terrible, dry, raspy laugh coming from a corner of the den. She looked around and saw a cat.

His fur must have once been brown, but now it was grey, and around his chin it was white, with a few brown hairs sticking out. He had old, saggy, light blue eyes.

"Well! Me found myself a girl kitty. You're a young'en. Pretty, too. How many kittens, eh?"

Shadowflight's mouth wouldn't move. Who was this cat?

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Ah…a few here and there. Met an ol' cat

named Purdy, got around to liking him. Oh yeah, me name. I'm a hobo. Call me that, all the girls do. Had a lot of girl kitties in my age, always ready for more."

"Well okay…Hobo." Shadowflight said.

"Me found ya in the water, rush'en down stream. Sort of asleep. Sort of dead. Never found the word for that. Grabbed you. This cave is in the river bed, but water just never gets in. But the sticky guys, like us with no fur, their crap gets in here."

He flicked his tail at a pile of Twoleg rubbish.

Shadowflight curled her tail around her paws. Hobo found a piece of crowfood on the sandy ground and chewed at it.

"So…" he looked pretty bored. "What to do?"

"I have to go." Shadowflight said.

"It's really hard to get out of here. You get to the entrance of the cave, take a big, big, big breath, and move aside 'da rock, put it back really, really fast, then swim to the top. When a she-cat comes in here, she had my kittens, lets them get weaned, then basically dies." He laughed a wheezy, dry laugh. "And you ain't leaving here without giving me kittens."

He moved away, back to the corner, and sighed. Then he looked at Shadowflight. He paused, looking intent, a hard expression on his face.

"Do you believe in ghosts?" he asked in his raspy voice.

Shadowflight shook her head. "No."

"Now_ that's_ strange," he rasped, and, with a wave of one paw, he disappeared into smoke.

Shadowflight let out a silent wail of shock. Suddenly feeling scared and angry, she raced foreword, and pushed her paw onto the boulder at the entrance for the cave. It rolled aside easily. She swam up, through the water, not bothering to close the boulder. It didn't matter if the cave got flooded. It didn't matter to a ghost.

Her paws worked furiously, as she saw the light get closer and closer. She paddled harder, and suddenly got a huge breath of air.

She was above surface. She paddled over to the bank and pulled herself up.

She was in a grassy meadow. She knew that she would get back to ThunderClan territory if she traveled upstream. So she started walking.

XXX

Shadowflight was tired. She had been walking for several hours, and the sun was beginning to set. There was no sign of anything familiar.

She let her mind wander over to Demon. He was still with his guards. Shadowflight thought they just ought to let him into the forest. But she actually wouldn't like that.

She shrugged and walked on, through a meadow of dry grass. What had happened with Leafcloud, Seapaw and Nightwind? The thought made her start walking with incredible swiftness.

Suddenly she came face to face with a Twoleg nest. She started dodging between nests until she leaped over a fence and recognized some of ThunderClan territory.

Sighing with relief, she raced foreword, until she could see the ravine. She raced down it.

And instantly, her heart pounded like mad, threatening to break her chest, as her whole body zoned out.

"_NIGHTWIND…"_

"Shadowflight? Oh, hello."

But the black she-cat had already passed out.

**That was funny chapter, huh?**

**Sorry I didn't review yesterday, but things were really busy…Well, just so you know guys, review as much as possible because I'm going to need 100 reviews before the sequal…don't get to shocked guys, I'm very ambitious (How can my friend, who writes horrible stories that only copy mine, read her stinking crap of a story at the talent show, and I can't? Grr…She writes in a notebook, and says she loves writing when it takes her three hours to write a sentence! She can never think of anything to write! It's so not fair!!)**


	11. Chapter 11: Seen!

_**Chapter 11, Seen!**_

_Rockpool looked over at Demon,_ trapped by guards, looking over at Shadowflight. Suddenly he was filled with such a strong rush of anger that he swayed on his paws.

Whirling around, he raced over to the ShadowClan border. He and Aspenleaf had been seeing each other for a little bit now.

He skidded to a stop. Aspenleaf was already there.

"Hi," he mumbled.

"Bad day?" she asked.

"Sort of." He answered

"You know, we both hate our Clans. We should run away." Aspenleaf suggested.

"No!" he spat, "I don't hate my Clan!"

He lay down heavily, his back to her.

She padded up and lay down beside him, their pelts brushing.

"We could start out own Clan."

"No."

He stood up quickly and padded a little ways-then slammed right into something.

"Hey!" he grunted. Instantly he smelled who it was.

"Shalepelt!"

"Oh hi." She sounded like she had been crying, because her voice was tight and her eyes were red.

"Rockpool…that's against the warrior code!"

"I…wasn't doing anything! We were just…talking."

"You _lay _together," she whined.

"Oh alright! We've seen each other a couple of times now! We love each other, okay? But it isn't any of your business!"

"Yes it is!" she spat.

"Please don't tell anyone!" He begged.

"I won't! But that's just because…" she trailed away. "I _once_ loved you."

She whirled around and vanished into the brush.

Rockpool sighed heavily then padded off. He was very afraid of what would happen to him. If Shalepelt told Ashfur…he would be gone for.

XXX

"But she is really, truly alive?"

"Yep," Leafcloud promised Shadowflight, who had just woken up from a faint of shock. Nightwind was sitting nearby, blinking occasionally.

Leafcloud had just been telling Shadowflight about the Search and all that. The rest of the Clan already had heard about it, and for the most part, understood what had happened.

Cats began to wander over to the fresh-kill pile. Nightwind padded over. There were only two mice left. She bent her head.

"What's your problem?" said a huge, low voice beside her ear. "I'm a warrior that's older then you. Move aside! I get that!"

Nightwind scrambled away and looked back up. It was Shrewtail. He was looking very skinny.

"Oh…" Nightwind trailed away. "Sorry."

He snorted and snatched up the mice.

Shadowflight, who had watched the whole thing, came up beside her friend and sat down.

"He's a jerk," she mumbled.

She heard the brush of fur behind her and turned around.

"Oh…Rockpool…"

Her voice became hard. He stared at her.

"Where are you going?" she snarled.

"Well...hunting. There's still a bunch of hungry cats."

"Oh…well, go."

As soon as he had vanished out of the tunnel, Shadowflight stood up and followed him.

She could see him wandering around randomly through the forest. Finally Rockpool stopped by a few big rocks and crouched down, his back turned.

Shadowflight listened as hard as she could, but what he was saying was to quiet. Then she heard…

"…she hates me…"

Suddenly Rockpool stood up and raced in the direction of the ShadowClan. Instantly Shadowflight was behind him.

He stopped right at the border, and groomed himself.

A second later the same cat Shadowflight had seen at the border with Owlclaw appeared, and raced over to Rockpool.

"Hi!" she shrieked, making Shadowflight wrinkle her nose at the sound. "Guess what? Owlclaw…he was killed in a border fight with WindClan."

Suddenly she grinned. "And now I can be with YOU!"

She covered his face in licks.

"Wait…" Suddenly Aspenleaf froze. "We're being watched!"

"Come out, Shalepelt!" Rockpool growled.

Shadowflight stalked out of the brush.

"Oh…"

"I thought you loved her," Shadowflight snarled angrily. "I…why are you doing this Rockpool?"

He opened his mouth, but had no sound.

Shadowflight whirled around. "They're releasing Demon tonight. They're going to have a conference about him. If he gets proved innocent, they let him into the forest. If he gets proved guilty, then they kill him."

Shadowflight's eyes grew large, and she bounded away.

**Wee! Conference and more excitement coming up! Do you think Demon will be proved innocent or guilty? What do YOU think he is, actually?? Review please!! This evening I will be updating four chapters!**


	12. Chapter 12: Council

_**Chapter 12, Council**_

_Shadowflight bounded into the camp,_ her mind spinning. She wanted to help Demon live, she really did. But…who else would support her? Skyfeather and Leafcloud wouldn't care, and Nightwind barely knew him. Then Rockpool, he…his mind was occupied with other she-cats.

She looked around. Ravenstar had leaped onto the Highrock. Her whole flank was covered in little scars. Quill marks. It was clear whose side she would be on.

"We are going to have a council about Demon," she yowled. "Everyone choose their side. If you would like him to be killed, leap up beside me. If you think he should be turned into the forest, walk to him."

Then Demon was let out of his bracken bush, his guards dragging him along. Birchoak had his head pressed on Demon's neck, keeping his head down.

Then Ashfur, Thornclaw, Shrewtail, Hollysky, Dustpelt, Ferncloud, Shalepelt, Flametail, Seapaw, and Yarrowpaw all leaped up on the rock. Birchoak looked up at Ravenstar. "I'm not on his side," he yowled, "But I still need to guard him!"

"He doesn't need guards," Shadowflight mewed quietly.

Birchoak gave her a disgusted look, then leaped up beside Ravenstar.

Rockpool had appeared in camp, looking queasy. Shadowflight didn't look at him.

Then she saw Nightwind pad over to Demon, and Hunterpaw approached quietly behind her. Leafcloud look uncertain, then padded over to sit beside Nightwind.

Snowfeather came to Demon then, and Skyfeather sat at the nursery. Finally she came and sat down, right next to Snowfeather.

Shadowflight looked over at Rockpool from her place beside Demon. He was sitting still, between Ravenstar and Demon. He looked from one to the other, then back again. The whole Clan was waiting for him.

Shadowflight couldn't take her eyes off him. She felt that she could do nothing to help his decision.

Finally, with a shake of his head, Rockpool leaped over to Ravenstar. He looked up once at Shadowflight, and met her fierce green gaze.

Demon looked up at the ones on his side, and gave them all a small smile.

"Okay!" Ravenstar shouted, "First I would like the ones on my side to say why they think Demon isn't innocent."

Ashfur quickly stepped foreword.

"Demon here, he shows signs of wanting to hurt others. I think it's in his blood to kill cats for prey. He protects Shadowflight, and Shadowflight alone. That's not loyalty! I think he protects her because they are planning to kill all the Clan, then run away, and fall in love." He snickered.

"NO!" Shadowflight shouted, on her feet, objecting. "He doesn't love me, because he would have told me. I think the reason he protects me is that I was the one that found him in the forest when he was…er…stuck in a bush, and I pulled him out. I'm his friend. He doesn't know anything about the warrior code, so he doesn't know that loyalty is to the whole Clan, not to one. Also, he is not even part of the Clan, so how can you blame him for loyalty? Guards, I am ashamed that you don't watch what he eats. You bring him mice, but he prefers bark. How can he eat cats? Most of you are as big or bigger then him."

Ashfur was quiet, flicking his tail a little bit. There was an unsteady silence.

Then a small, shaky voice spoke up. It was Rockpool.

"I am on no ones side, even though I sit over here. I find no reason for Demon to be put to death, he is merely being himself, a porcupine, not a cat.

But I find myself angry at him, Shadowflight was happy with me, but he started falling in love with her."

Ravenstar spoke then. "I dislike him very much. Does anyone have more to say?"

All the cats on her side leaped into the air, but all their reasons that they gave her basically the same as Ashfur's.

But no one on Shadowflight's side spoke. Demon was still.

"Okay, everyone on my side have said they think he is guilty, and no one on the other side has said anything except Shadowflight. The amount of anger on my side is so strong, and on the other side so low, that Demon is guilty."

"That's not fair!" Shadowflight roared. She looked down at Demon. He still didn't move. Then, when the clamor died down, he said, "I am ready for death."

Shadowflight sat down, and looked at her paws.

Ashfur and all the others from Ravenstar's side leaped down to Demon. They thronged around him.

But suddenly, the porcupine wriggled free, leaving some quills in many cats' paws. He dashed to the gorse tunnel and looked back, his eyes glinting in the moonlight. "I have plans," he yowled, then leaped foreword, fastening his teeth into the scruff of Nightwind's neck. He turned around and bounded away, holding the writhing black she-cat in his jaws.

Instantly the whole Clan was running after him, or it could have just been Shadowflight, or maybe only a few cats, but all Shadowflight knew was that she was going to catch him.

She was scrambling up the ridge to WindClan territory; she was just out of Fourtrees. She saw Demon ahead, lumbering over to Highstones. He still had Nightwind. Then he was scrambling over rocks, and then…then…he was at the base of the mountains, and he lunged foreword, and…disappeared.

**Okay, that's only one chapter of the four I'm giving you…PLEASE REVIEW!! Whoa, bet you guys didn't think that Demon was going to be evil!**


	13. Chapter 13: The Cords

_**Chapter 13, the cords**_

_Shadowflight stopped and sat down._ She was panting hard, but she was scared, Demon had just taken Nightwind away.

She heard the rustling of grass, and Rockpool, Leafcloud, Skyfeather and Ashfur came bounding to her side.

"Catch him!" Ashfur spat.

Shadowflight turned around and looked at him. "He went up the mountain. He had Nightwind in his jaws."

"Let's follow him, then!" Ashfur spat.

"Alright," Shadowflight said calmly, and started sprinting across the moorland.

Soon they reached the rocks that bordered the base of the mountains.

Shadowflight scrambled foreword. There was a thin path winding up the mountain, but that would take to long. The moon was already high in the sky.

Even in the dim light, she could see a hole in the side of a mountain. The entrance was small though, they'd have to crawl…

"Look there!" Leaftail called suddenly, pointing at the hole. "That's probably a secret way up!"

Without waiting for anyone to say anything, she bounded foreword.

Shadowflight slipped in after, with the others behind her.

There were stone steps carved into the floor, and they went steeply up. Water trickled along the edges of them. On every step, and the walls and roof, was a disgusting wet, red root. It squished underneath the cats' paws, but even when they tried to tear it with their claws, it didn't move.

Drip, drip, drip. Shadowflight heard Ashfur jump at the sound. She stepped foreword cautiously, and her paw made a loud squishing noise on the blood-red plant. Ashfur jumped in surprise again.

She went up the steps, looking around all the while. She could hear the others' heavy breathing around her.

The red plant got thicker and thicker, until they were walking on a foot of it. It was thicker on the walls and roof too, so the passage got smaller.

And still it became thicker, until the cats were crouched down so low that their bellies brushed the disgusting stuff. And still it brushed their backs and sides.

Suddenly there was a series of grunting, then a yelp of pain.

"It wrapped around my foot!" Rockpool called, and Shadowflight looked back, and saw his dark blue eyes glint in the darkness. He looked around. "It's moving!" he yowled.

And it was. It slithered around, tightening around their paws. A thin cord came foreword and wrapped loosely around Leafcloud's neck. She screamed.

Shadowflight writhed and thrashed around. Her paws were soon pinned down, and so was her tail. A cord went over her back, and then more, trapping her in a net of red root.

She looked down, and instantly screamed. There was a cat skeleton lying in the root stuff, the cords wrapped around almost every bit of the dirty bones. She understood. Cats came over here, and the roots caught and killed them. Then they stayed there forever, or their _bodies _did.

"Skeletons!" Skyfeather screamed. "Everywhere! I don't want to die here!"

Then a soft, beautiful voice wove around their ears. It whispered, in a light voice:

_Everywhere you see, bones with bits of gristle. _

_Do you wish to lie like that,_

_In a place of terror and darkness?_

_There is one way, to save yourselves,_

_The most beautiful of all, will drink from the poison pool._

_Most choose no, to die in this gloom,_

_What is it that lies in the poison pool?_

_Is it death?_

_No one knows, for what's in the pool is different for everyone else. _

_So choose now, if no, you will die here, struggling in vain against the cords,_

_Or yes, and you will be let freely foreword, and led to a little pool. _

_Your most beautiful will be blocked until she drinks, so make your decision now._

All the cats were silent, and the cords had stopped strangling. Everyone knew who the most beautiful was. She just had to make the decision.

"I…guess I'll drink." Skyfeather rasped.

All the cats gasped at the same time.

But the cords were already letting go, and they had to go foreword, because a wall of red root had come up behind them, and they were blocked.

No time to change her mind.

Skyfeather led, stumbling foreword, scrambling among the roots. Suddenly the roots thinned, then disappeared, and they were in a small stone cavern, lit only by a swirling silver pool of thick water.

Instantly they were blocked on both sides, back and front, by walls of red root. And slowly, the disgusting plant was inching foreword toward them, so they only had a little while.

"Drink!" all the cats urged Skyfeather, who stumbled to the pool, and slowly bent her head and took a sip.

**Oo…what's going to happen in poor Skyfeather? The climax for this story, (it's already begun) is different then many others. But it still has a villain…Review!**


	14. Chapter 14: Dog Bears

_**Chapter 14, dog-bears**_

_Skyfeather swallowed, and everyone was_ quiet. Skyfeather's eyes were closed.

Ashfur gave a small squeak. Skyfeather still didn't move.

Then she opened her eyes and took another sip, then another and another and another. Soon she had drunken the whole tiny pool.

"Are you okay?" Ashfur asked.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. Then she smiled.

"Yes…I am. I can't believe that a tom as handsome as you are would ask me that."

She sauntered over to Ashfur and brushed her tail over his nose.

He smiled and looked over at her.

"So…" she said in a voice heavy with flattery, "Do you think we should have a life together?"

"Er…okay." He said.

Shadowflight understood. This was a love poison!

"Let's go," Shadowflight muttered.

"Well fine, ugly face, can't a have a moment with…?" she licked Ashfur's nose.

"Er, we really need to get moving." Leafcloud said.

"Wait, skinny beam!" Skyfeather shrieked.

"We have to go," Rockpool said calmly.

"Oh…so…" Skyfeather looked as if she was in a trance. She slowly walked over to Rockpool. He turned around and ignored her.

The roots were gone from in front of them, but still they were behind.

Shadowflight stepped foreword, toward the darkness. She took another step, then…slipped really fast, and really far.

All the others had slipped too, and all around them was paradise.

Leafcloud was in a Clan, a fat, well fed Clan. She was lying next to Brownclaw, and cats were bringing them prey and talking to them. Oh, how wonderful…

Skyfeather was in a meadow, with Darkflame and nobody else beside her. They were walking through the tall grass slowly, their pelts brushing. How nice, to be alone with her true love, with no one thinking about how forbidden it was…

Ashfur gazed around at a bunch of happy cats sitting below the Highrock, and he was on top, yowling out orders. Then they were serving him mice and new bedding…Then three pretty she-cats all sat beside him and cleaned his pelt.

Rockpool looked up, and he was deputy. Aspenleaf lay beside him, and there were a few leftover quills from the recent departure (and death) of Demon. Shadowflight was far below. He smiled. Owlclaw was also dead.

But it was Shadowflight who actually saw something interesting.

She was leaping foreword to Demon, who had Nightwind pinned down. Then she pulled him off and took her friend away to safety…

All five cats just stood their, wrapped in their own visions of what they really wanted.

They must have stayed like that for at least half an hour, before sharp teeth fastened in the backs of each of their throats.

Instantly, they all snapped out of it, and found themselves in a muddy cave. Huge dog-like, bear-like shaggy animals were on top of them, trying to kill them.

Quickly all were fighting. Shadowflight scratched and bit so hard that bits of skin fell of the animals.

She lunged, and threw all her weight on one. It smashed a paw into her side. She fell, then leaped back up and attacked it. She raked her claws into its big chest. It picked her up in its sharp, long teeth and shook her. She dropped to the ground.

Two big creatures were guarding the way out. Shadowflight and Rockpool leaped foreword and each claws at one. Shadowflight could barely get her claws through the thickly matted fur. And when she did, their skin was so tough that she couldn't even get it in.

She tried using her teeth. With her claws, she pulled out a huge hunk of the matted fur.

She then clamped her teeth hard into the bare skin, then pulled her head out and threw it in again.

Blue blood spurted all over. With a squeal of pure revolt, Shadowflight sprang backward. A beam of bright green light came and shot through the creature. There were three flashes, and in everyone Shadowflight could see the creature's skeleton, surrounded by soft green light, before, with a pop, the creature vanished.

The other guard was already gone.

"Quick!" Shadowflight screamed. She leaped foreword, and sprinted into a thin muddy passage. Soon Leafcloud appeared, looking a little muddy, then Ashfur and Rockpool, and finally Skyfeather, stained with blue and red blood.

"Okay! Are we all here?" Shadowflight asked.

"Yep," said a few cats.

"Let's go to the next…step," Shadowflight said, and smiled a little bit.

They stepped into another room, but this one was very much different…

**WEE! One more chapter for you guys before I stop (No, that doesn't mean the story is over) and then you must wait until tomorrow morning for three more chapters. And tomorrow evening I will send out four more!! PLEASE REVIEW!!**


	15. Chapter 15: The Table and the Teeth

_**Chapter 15, The table and the teeth**_

_Shadowflight looked around. They were_ in a large, very bright room. There was a table in the middle of the room, and a transparent floor. The walls seemed to extend out forever, a swirl of constantly moving colors.

"What do you think we do?" Leafcloud asked.

"Lets walk over to the table," Shadowflight said. She cautiously put a paw on the transparent floor. Nothing happened. She strolled over to the table.

It was the same one she had lain on in the creator of Mudpaw's Twoleg nest. It was darker though, a deeper brown.

And it was spinning. Not fast, but then it speeded up, and slowed down again. It went like that, a never ending cycle.

"Let's all leap onto it at the same time," Shadowflight meowed. She crouched beside it, and all the cats came up beside her.

"On the count of three," Rockpool muttered. "One…two…THREE!"

They all sprang into the air and landed on the small table. Shadowflight was in the middle.

Instantly, the speeding sped up very fast, and slowed to a dull rotate. The table began to sink ditto the transparent floor- which wasn't transparent anymore, now a dull, light brown- and then stopped, as soon as the part where the five cats sat on was three feet under the floor.

Shadowflight looked up. Where they had come in was quickly closing. The whole roof was covered in metal teeth. Some teeth were huge, others tiny.

She leaped off the table. There were other jaws on the floor too, the same sizes, but a very thin path wound between them and out the entrance of the cave.

Instinctively, the cats got on the path and padded toward the exit. But instantly the jaws on top came slowly down, ready to crush anything beneath it.

They sprinted along the path, wide-eyed with pure terror.

They streaked out the entrance, and one of the smaller teeth sunk into Skyfeather's tail. She jerked at it, and it pulled loose, leaving behind a few white hairs.

Shadowflight looked round the room they were in now. It was dark, with two light tan dirt paths going off in two different directions.

Rockpool and the others started walking down the path that went right. Rockpool looked back. Shadowflight was sitting in the middle of the path going left.

"Aren't you coming?" he asked her. She shook her head. "I think this is the right way," she muttered.

Rockpool looked at all the cats. Then he strolled over to Shadowflight. "Come on, I'm with you."

The other cats looked at him.

"You go right," he told them, "And see what you find. We're going left."

He started walking.

"Bye, handsome!" he heard Skyfeather call.


	16. Chapter 16: Question

_**Chapter 16, question**_

_Shadowflight and Rockpool trotted quickly_ along. The path went steadily and steeply upward. After climbing for at least twenty minutes they came onto a flat area.

There was a large but skinny leopard crouching in the center of the path, completely blocking the way for passersby.

"Er…" Shadowflight said, approaching. "Could you…move aside?"

"Yes, I may have to do that. But you have to answer my question. If you get it right, you get to go on. If you get it wrong, I kill you. Want the question?"

"Okay," Shadowflight mewed.

The leopard took a deep breath. "He's big, he loves to have females and kits around him, and he enjoys battling for mates. He has trouble living without others serving him, but he spends a lot of time sleeping. He lies to his females about stupid things, and yet never in his long life tells her the truth. What is he?"

Shadowflight and Rockpool were quiet.

That sounds like a cat, Shadowflight thought. A male cat. Or a male leopard. Maybe a cheetah. Or a lion.

"Okay. Say what you think."

Suddenly feeling panicky, Shadowflight quickly chose lion.

"What do you think?" the leopard asked Rockpool.

He shrugged. "Maybe a spider."

"I thought of a lion." Shadowflight suggested.

The leopard grinned. "It's a lion. Good. Now, I don't just let you pass, I offer you a shortcut to the top of the mountain. Would you like one?

"Oh yes!" Shadowflight said eagerly.

"Okay," The leopard said. She dipped her tail-tip into a pool of water, then scribbled something on the path. The walls seemed to fall away from Shadowflight and Rockpool, and they were flung far out into space. The cold air whistled around them, then…

Rockpool smashed into the ground, hitting his head and instantly passing out.


	17. Chapter 17: Otherworld

_**Chapter 17, Otherworld**_

_Shadowflight hit hard when she_ smashed onto the ground, but not as hard as Rockpool. She looked up, and saw the star flecked sky, and white snow swirling down on her.

She scrambled to her feet, and was met by a very odd sight.

Instead of a sharp mountain peak, there was a large stretch of flat land, all buried in snow. A large, flat grey boulder sat in the snow. But on top of it…

Nightwind was suspended in the air above the boulder, her feet a few inches from the grey surface. She wasn't moving, and her eyes were half closed. She looked as though she was standing calmly on the ground, but she was floating…

But she was surrounded in a ball of eerie, bright green light that was swirling around and around.

Demon sat a few feet away from the boulder and Nightwind. Bits and pieces of metal and wires surrounded his front paws. He had a long wire stuck into the green light, then attached to a piece of metal that was by his paw. He pressed his paw to it.

And few feet ahead of him, and right where the flat land ended and sloped steeply down, was a bright golden-orange light. Everytime he pressed his paw to the wire and metal, this light flashed.

And then the porcupine jammed his paws onto the metal and wire, and held it like that, his yellow eyes closed. The golden light grey brighter and it roared with sound. Demon pulled back, as a huge golden-orange fire danced around, down far below where the bottom of this mountain met the next one.

But the fire that started way down there came all the way up here, and huge flames leaped around.

Then Demon leaped foreword a last time, and jammed his whole body onto the wire. There was a crackling, and Shadowflight looked up to see huge lights flowing across the night skies. Reds, yellows, greens, blues! It danced together in three long, thick ribbons. (AN: the Aurora, and I'll explain why later.)

Demon looked up at the colors for a second, them back at the golden fire. There was a sound of exploding, and a foot thick, bright, very long pathway started a few feet away from where the flat place ended, and stretched on for what seemed like eternity. It was a deep, bright gold, and it was very clean. The snow would come swirling down, but couldn't touch it.

And the golden fire still raged below. Occasionally, a flame would leap up and lick at the bridge, then fall back.

Demon staggered away from the piece of metal and wire. The colors in the sky still danced. Then without warning, the porcupine shouted, "I did it!"

Then he turned around.

"Shadowflight!" he whispered, his eyes were wide with wild insanity. "You came. I knew you would. Your friends…they took the other way. The wrong way." He paced foreword slowly, unsteadily, as if he had forgotten how to walk. "I did it!" he shouted again, tilting his head to the colors that swirled in the sky. He looked back at Shadowflight, his face illuminated by the eerie green light swirling around Nightwind.

His eyes were brimmed with tears of pure ambition and victory. He looked back at the fire and the pathway, then back to Shadowflight.

"What did you do?" she whispered.

"I…," the porcupine smiled viciously. "I opened up the Otherworld." He looked at the glowing gold path. "Forever, since when my mother told me of a world where all was perfect, I have wanted to open this world and go into it. I have done it. I knew how, it is the pure ambition of all my kind to open it up and go into it. Nobody has done it before. I have! Nobody wants to make a guard tunnel, then put a cat in the green light…and where can a porcupine get metal? But I could do it! YES! YES! YES!" he shrieked the end, until his voice got cracked and hoarse.

"Shadowflight…" he whispered suddenly, grabbing her and pulling her an inch from his face. "Come with me. We could be happy." His eyes glittered with ambitious greed. "I love you. We'd be happy!"

Shadowflight wrenched herself out of his strong claws. "No," she said, "I can't let you go in there. There are probably already inhabitants in that world. You would be a mystery. A terror!"

"There _are _inhabitants," he whispered, "And I would _have_ to be a terror! But I must go there! Come with me, Shadowflight!"

"NO!" she screamed. She stepped over to the path, and blocked it from the porcupine.

"I can't let you in," Shadowflight said.

He let out a scream of pure fury, and leaped at her, much faster then Shadowflight had seen. He was acting like a cat, a agile cat, not a heavy, slow porcupine.

He stopped a few inches away, his tail raised. "Move…" he whispered, "Move now or I'm going to hit you."

"I've been hit before," Shadowflight rasped, crouching at the beginning of the pathway.

And the tail came smashing down, and then there was pain, pain, pain…

**Another world… dodges crowfood I know this doesn't seem like warriors anymore, and the next book is going to be so different from warriors that... I'm not going to tell you what happens though! Demon is such a weird character. I started writing about him, intending him to be the one who makes Shadowflight and Rockpool fight. But he's become a villain! This stuff I'm writing about comes from my crazy imagination…I'm printing out my stories and sending them to my friend, and I drew a picture of Demon trying to make the path appear. It's so good! He looks like a real porcupine. I guess I'm a pretty good artist…I know how to make the cat's hind legs look right…and they're body shapes…Review, my fine…erm…reviewers!**


	18. Chapter 18:To Bad the Effects Killed her

_**Chapter 18, To bad, the effects killed her**_

_Leafcloud padded into a brightly_ lit room, Ashfur and Skyfeather behind her.

She looked around, and there, in the middle of the room was a door. It just sat there, and it was the kind you found on a Twoleg nest.

Leafcloud walked toward it. She was about to go through it when it disappeared.

She whirled around, and there it was, four feet behind her.

"What happened?" Ashfur asked. He strolled over to the door and vanished inside.

"Handsome!" Skyfeather shrieked, "Come back!" she leaped into the door.

Leafcloud made after them. She leaped at the door. It disappeared.

She turned around. There it was, exactly four feet behind her.

She walked toward it, and once again it went four feet behind her.

Feeling panicky, and wondering where her friends were, Leafcloud raced at the door, and it disappeared.

She stopped and sat down, only a couple inches from it. But as soon as her paw started going through…it would disappear behind her.

Then she had a sudden idea. She leaped at the door, and it went behind her. She turned and leaped. As soon as it started moving she sprang right into the middle. The door came at her with the speed of light, and then she was in.

Suddenly she was falling, and very quickly too. She tried to look round, but all she was blurred colors. Then, suddenly, she landed.

The floor banged against her, and she stood up. The floor was transparent.

Ashfur and Skyfeather were already there, sitting, licking each other.

"Er…guys?"

"Yeah?" Skyfeather asked.

"What's next?"

Skyfeather shrugged.

Leafcloud put out a paw to step toward them. Her paw slipped through the floor. She tripped, and her chest came down. It also slipped through the floor.

She pushed herself up by using her hind legs. Then she sat on the transparent floor and looked around.

She put a paw onto he floor. It sunk through.

"I don't get this," Leafcloud whispered. She stood up, making sure not to lift any part of her body up and down again. She was standing now.

She took a step, and instantly her paw fell through the floor.

She took a step by sliding her paw over the floor. It didn't sink in.

She did another step that way, then another until she was walking over to a dark cave entrance that -hopefully- marked the exit.

"Guys!" she called back, "I know how to walk on this stuff. You just slide your paws across it, don't lift them and put them down, they slide through…"

Ashfur slid over to her, looking a little wobbly, Skyfeather, still under the effects of the love poison, bounded after him.

There was a sound like cracking and Skyfeather fell, fell, fell…Leafcloud could still see her and still hear her cries. Both cats were shocked, and even after ten minutes of waiting they could still see a tiny white dot and hear a faint scream.

Leafcloud was shocked into not moving. She had given both cats strict instructions on how to walk…but the poison! It had made her ditzy.

"Er…?" Ashfur mumbled.

"Let's just keep going," Leafcloud whispered.

He looked down. "I can still see her."

"Yes I know! Please move!"

He slid across the floor to the dark hole.

Leafcloud followed him.

**No, she's not dead. I'm telling you this because I don't want you guys getting all twitery…REVIEW!! The last three chappies this evening! I will send them out at six o clock mountain time!**


	19. Chapter 19: Demon

_**Chapter 19, Demon**_

_The pain echoed around inside_ Shadowflight's head. Her body wanted to stop, to give up, but it didn't. She had been hit before by the treacherous quills, but never had it been this bad. She felt like leaving, running backward, falling over the edge of the flat land and into the golden fire. Her eyes hurt and so did everywhere. Her tail, her leg, her belly…

She opened her eyes. The one eye that was blind had a quill deep inside it. She looked around, her flank was a forest of quills, and her leg was even denser with them. Her whole back…

She rolled in the snow, trying to make the swelling, blooming, billowing pain stop. She clamped her teeth on the quills that she could reach and wrenched them out.

She got most of them, and blood dribbled out of every gash. She staggered to her feet, and looked around for Demon. He was a few feet away.

"MOVE!" he screamed. His soft yellow eyes were bright red.

"You…" Shadowflight rasped, "You're not doing this because you're jealous of me and Rockpool are you? This is…different."

"That's right," the porcupine said hoarsely, "I could care less about your stupid affairs. Love! I have only one in my life."

He leaped toward her, and pushed her down by the chest with one paw and held her there. "You…" he whispered, "I love you…But never…never…you won't want to cross with me. I will cross! Come with me, Shadowflight. There are creatures there…they would see us…please, Shadowflight."

"I won't! I belong in the Clan. I have a place!"

"No you don't!" Shadowflight felt his black claws dig into her chest, and she tried hard not to wince. "You don't have a place, Shadowflight. You are unwanted there! Fights, that's all that Clan life is. It's stupid! Worthless! Go somewhere where you would be prized!"

"No!" Shadowflight struggled under his grip. "You saved me…from the Twoleg traps…I thought of you as wonderful. But this…" she looked at Nightwind, still suspended in the green light, the golden fire and the path.

"I have friends," she rasped, "That I couldn't leave."

"WRONG!" he shrieked, "You think you have friends," his voice shook with emotion, "But you don't need them. You're a loner. I don't see you trying to bring that poor Rockpool to consciousness. You're not trying to figure out how to get Nightwind out of the light, or rushing down the mountain to find Skyfeather and Leafcloud. It's only me that is with you now!"

He sprung away from her, and raced over to the path.

Shadowflight was after him, she fastened her teeth onto his thick tail, and clawed his quills downward.

He whirled around. "Don't stop me!" he shrieked. He scored his claws into her chest, and butted her with his tail.

She grabbed some of his quills in her mouth and yanked them out, leaving a place of fuzzy fur. She raked her claws into it, and dark red blood dribbled down his quills. Never before had he bled like that. Nobody could get through his quills.

He turned around, and grabbed her shoulder in his strong teeth, and shook her. Shadowflight thrashed and scored her claws into his nose. He dropped her.

He turned around, and then was running, running quickly, past Nightwind, and over to the path. Shadowflight raced after him, but he was on the path, and he kept running, until he vanished from sight.

But burned into the once clean path were his paw prints, deep black places, so perfect. She saw his claws and the place where his pads fit…

She sat down, the snow was blowing hard now, and there was wind. But she could still see the path and the place where Demon's paws had burned their print into it. And the fire was still burning, but it had gone harder when Demon went over it, and now it was back to normal, but still burning, still burning…


	20. Chapter 20: Fire Breather

_**Chapter 20, the fire breather**_

_Leafcloud slipped into the dark_ hole. She came into a dark, huge, cavern. Ashfur was in front of her.

She looked around. There was a path through the darkness, but it was raised up, and on either side were drops that extended down for ever.

It was thin, about a tail-length wide, but very long. There were a few places where the path had even crumbled away. One gap would have to be jumped.

Ashfur inched along it on his belly, then stood up and trotted carefully along it. Leafcloud followed him.

Leafcloud looked down and saw that on both side were endless drops, with a bright fiery glow coming from the distance. They were in a huge rock cave, because there was a jagged stone roof about thirty fox-lengths above them.

They were halfway along the thin path and about to jump the big gap when there was a trembling on the path and a burst of fiery light. Roars filled the air.

Leafcloud turned around, and saw a huge, crimson black creature running, flapping its wings. It was hard to see, as if it was made of light, and then it blew out, and fire was everywhere.

"Run!" Ashfur bellowed, letting Leafcloud slip past him. She pelted a little ways along the path, then turned back to see that Ashfur wasn't following her.

The stupid tom! He was standing, guarding Leafcloud. The huge creature leaped, and Ashfur was falling off the path with a loud shout of fear.

The creature ignored him, and came rushing toward Leafcloud. She turned and fled, her whole body shaking. She could feel heat on her flank, and she was scared, terrified.

She ran, her legs moving so fast that they were blurred. She felt pain on her shoulders, and she thrashed through air, then skidded into cool darkness. The roaring had stopped, and the warmth too. She struggled a little, she was lost in heaviness. She couldn't open her eyes, but she could picture Ashfur falling down, falling, falling, falling, and she tried not to think of him trapped down there forever.

Her eyes hurt, and so did her whole body. She couldn't move, but she had one thought, and she knew it was true, even though she had no proof, that Shadowflight was the only one to come out of the tunnel still conscious.

**Hmmm…who liked it? The sequel is called Demon's Jealousy, and it is coming out as soon as I get 80 reviews. Please review to this. Also, do you like Ravenstar's POV better or Shadowflght's??**


	21. Chapter 21: The Search for Nightwind

_**Chapter 21, The Search for Nightwind**_

_Shadowflight stared at the golden_ path for a long time. She felt weak; the quills had basically been energy suckers.

Suddenly there was a popping, crackling noise, and she turned around. Nightwind was lying limply on the rock, the green light gone. She was unconscious, but she looked like she would wake up soon.

Shadowflight looked back at the path, the golden fire, and knew instantly what she was to do. She sat down, and sat there for a second, watching the pattern the colors in the sky made on the snow. Finally she padded over to Rockpool. He wasn't awake.

"Goodbye," she whispered. She looked at his still form for a moment, then padded over to the boulder. She leaped up beside Nightwind. 

She was cold, but she was breathing. Shadowflight looked at her for a long time, then leaped off the boulder and padded over to the path way that led into the Otherworld. 

The looked at the burnt-in paw prints made by Demon, then she cautiously placed her paw onto the path. She made her own print, but instantly her paw burned with pain. She lifted it, and put it down in a new location. She had burned in her own paw print.

She walked carefully over the path, each paw burning with pain with every step. She was halfway over, but still she couldn't see the other side.

There were stars ahead of her, suspended in light green light. She continued walking, and the path started sloping down gently. She turned around, and saw the blazing colors in the sky, Nightwind limp on the rock, and Rockpool. Then she saw streaks of red and orange dotting the horizon line: dawn. It might be the last one she saw on earth, because that was what she was leaving, her home…her _life._

**The end**

**Something about the ending is really sad…Please don't shoot me for straying off the warriors plotline! It just gets boring how they defeat the bad cat in a battle at the end of each book, and I love magic!**

**The sequel will be when I get 80 reviews! If it doesn't have enough, log out and review! Also, who ever reviews first to Demon's Jealousy gets to know Seapaw's and Hunterpaw's warrior names!!**


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